They say that an organisation is only as good as the people who work for it. The care sector in particular is heavily reliant on attracting and retaining loyal, hard-working, intelligent employees who care about their work and those whom they look after. While managers should take care to put together a full package of remuneration, benefits, working conditions and support tools, there is one area that is especially important to help staff develop their skills. That is, effective support for training, career development and opportunities for personal advancement.

Digital management systems such as Care Vision are very helpful for care managers seeking to keep track of staff development and training. From onboarding and welcome tools to help people settle in to professional development records and training matrices, the system can show at a glance which team members are ready to take the next step in their careers and which ones need a little more support at the stage they are currently at to consolidate the skills they are working on.

Here are five ways to help your staff realise their career goals and develop their talents for the good of your whole team – managers, peers and residents alike.

Qualifications

Studying for recognised qualifications brings with it so many benefits for the person taking on the course and the organisation they work for. For a start, it teaches the person new skills and gives them added confidence and experience that can be brought back in house and shared with the rest of the team. Some care sector roles can only be filled by people who hold certain qualifications. This means that to this approach to staff development not only offers excellent career progression to individuals, it allows managers to promote people from existing members of staff. Thus rewarding loyalty and retaining valued staff members for longer.

Job shadowing

This method of staff development is an easy, cost-effective and fun way to increase people’s skills and expose them to new experiences in a safe, controlled way. New staff members are paired with someone more experienced and instructed to follow them for a day (or longer) to see for themselves what their role involves. They can experience different scenarios and watch how someone else handles them – perhaps discussing what happened together afterwards for even greater insights. Job shadowing can help staff members forge stronger bonds and introduce newer team members to residents in a relaxed, informal way.

Buddying, coaching and mentoring

Buddying, coaching and mentoring schemes are similar to job shadowing, but they go further into the experience with the relationship arranged more formally. Both parties spend longer together, with more time to build up a strong working relationship. Each person shares insights with the other, with the more experienced person helping the newer team member settle in. Often, the benefits can go the other way too, with the new starter bringing fresh insights in from the outside. A mentor/mentee or coach/coachee relationship helps with personal growth as well as career development.

Workshops and seminars

While there is much to be said for job shadowing, learning on the job and developing skills through personal experience, there is also a place for good quality workshops, seminars and training events. These can be a good excuse to go off site for a day or longer and meet other people doing similar jobs. This helps staff to build networks, share experiences and ask questions that they may not feel comfortable raising in the care home where they work. Again, staff members might be able to bring back useful insights, tips and resources to the care home for the benefit of everyone on the team.

Digital learning and virtual reality

Finally, the digital world has made staff training and development easier to achieve through e-learning, streaming videos, virtual reality and video conferencing. Social media opens up opportunities to chat with people on the same field and share insights, questions and links to useful websites. Care Vision comes with training to help new users understand how to use the system and its various applications. This, too, can be helpful for staff development. As the world becomes increasingly technology-based, people who understand how to use cloud-based systems and digital systems will be in great demand across the sector.